Allocation of a powdery mildew resistance locus to the chromosome arm 6RL of Secale cereale L. cv. 'Jingzhouheimai'

Chinese cultivar Jingzhouheimai of Secale cereale L. confers resistance to several important wheat diseases, making it a useful resource for wheat improvement. Octoploid amphiploid (2n = 8x = 56; AABBDDRR) was synthesized by hybridization of Jingzhouheimai with hexaploid wheat landrace Huixianhong and doubling of the F1 chromosome number. This amphiploid was backcrossed to the wheat parent to produce wheat-rye chromosome addition lines. The existing six disomic addition lines (all except 6R) were screened with 16 rye-specific DNA markers and three putative markers for 6R were identified. These markers were used in selection of chromosome 6R addition lines, confirmed by the genomic in situ hybridization (GISH). In this manner, seven monosomic 6R and five disomic addition were selected, as well as one mono-telosomic 6RS addition, one mono-telosomic and one ditelosomic 6RL additions. In turn these 6R addition lines were used to develop additional 15 6R-specific markers of which six were allocated to the arm 6RS and nine to 6RL. Screening for the powdery mildew resistance identified chromosome arm 6RL as the carrier of the resistance locus. Therefore, DNA markers identified as specific to the 6RL arm can be used to monitor the introgression of the resistance locus into wheat.